In common with last year's Social Policy Review, the COVID-19 pandemic remains the ever-present backdrop to research and policy globally in 2022. Although we have not included a separate section on the pandemic for this year's volume, the ongoing impact of COVID-19 is a recurring thread across the chapters. While contributions to Social Policy Review 33 in 2021 focused on the initial impact of the pandemic on social security and welfare systems which were not designed to respond to a global pandemic, chapters this year are more reflective in tone, responding to the greater accessibility of data about policy responses to the pandemic across different contexts. We have divided the volume into two sections: Part I contains contributions from the new Social Policy Association policy groups, with chapters exploring climate justice, employment policy and housing. Part II continues the international theme of last year, with contributions covering social policy developments across the UK, Europe and further afield.

In Chapter 1, in the context of last year's COP26 summit in Glasgow, Snell et al review climate justice, social policy and the transition to net zero in the UK on behalf of the Climate Justice and social policy group. They suggest that social policy has a key role in a just transition to net zero, by ensuring that no one is left behind in the transition, and they explore the policy implications for the areas of housing, employment and food. Chapter 2 by Green et al from the Employment Policy in Context group explores the changing role of the local state in employment policy, drawing out the opportunities and challenges of localisation of employment policy. In a similar vein, Bennett and Jones from the Employment and Social Security Policy group discuss active labour market policies in Chapter 3. They assess the role of social policy academics in influencing government policy and advocating a ‘pragmatic realist’ approach where social policy researchers engage with knowledge exchange practices, but recognising the responsibility of policymakers to engage with insights from social policy research.